From the dawn of our species, every culture - no matter how isolated - has maintained a belief in some form of a spiritual reality. Wouldn't this imply that human spirituality must represent an inherent characteristic of our species, that is, a genetically inherited trait? Are humans "wired" to believe in such universal concepts as a God, a soul, and an afterlife? Are what we call spiritual/transcendental experiences strictly the effects of our brain's chemistry? Is God something that exists "out there," beyond and independent of us? Or is God nothing more than the product of an inherited human perception, the manifestation of an evolutionary adaptation, a coping mechanism that emerged in our species to enable us to survive our unique and otherwise debilitating awaresness of death?

'God' Part of the Brain : A Scientific Interpretation of Human Spirituality and God - 5TH 01 edition

From the dawn of our species, every culture - no matter how isolated - has maintained a belief in some form of a spiritual reality. Wouldn't this imply that human spirituality must represent an inherent characteristic of our species, that is, a genetically inherited trait? Are humans "wired" to believe in such universal concepts as a God, a soul, and an afterlife? Are what we call spiritual/transcendental experiences strictly the effects of our brain's chemistry? Is God something that exists "out there," beyond and independent of us? Or is God nothing more than the product of an inherited human perception, the manifestation of an evolutionary adaptation, a coping mechanism that emerged in our species to enable us to survive our unique and otherwise debilitating awaresness of death?